DNA barcodes and insights into the phylogenetic relationships of butter-flies of the genus Eurema (Pieridae) from Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

In DNA barcoding, mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I recommended as a tool for the rapid identification and discovery of species. Genus Eurema, Family Pieridae is a highly diverse and distributed along wide geographic ranges in the world as well as India including approximately 70 species throughout the world. The present study is preliminary approach, we included n=12 specimen (3 samples per species) of four different Eurema species, listed in IUCN as Least concern species, were collected from Uttarakhand (India), to give the DNA barcodes and examine patterns of gene evolution through molecular phylogenetics with publicly available sequences of other 17 Eurema species present in different countries.\n\nThe generated (n=12) COI sequences compared with the sequences of the con-specifics submitted from different geographic regions, all four species were correctly identified. The obtained COI barcodes clearly showed the intraspecific and interspecific distance among four Eurema species by using a K2P technique. In spite NJ, clustering analysis also successfully discriminated all four species.\n\nIn phylogenetic topology, included 21 Eurema species in the Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood analysis recovered all species in two monophyletic clades with strong support and resolved taxonomic position within species groups. Although higher-level relationships among other Eurema species groups require additional study.